ASUS VG236H 3D Monitor and NVIDIA 3D Surround Review - PAGE 6

My main thought is that 3D Surround isn't quite a mature technology yet. First and foremost, there were a few hiccups here and there with 3D Vision. Second, many games tested could not span on all three displays. Most of them however were games released before multi-monitor gaming was ever made a reality through ATI Eyefinity. The most recent games tested did not have any problems since the developers are now aware that odd display ratios can be used by players.

In games that could scale on three monitors, it definitely gives a great advantage though. In first-person shooter games, one's vision is literally tripled, so enemies can be spotted beyond the standard field of view. Even racing games benefit of such a display arrangement; in third-person view, one sees the surrounding terrain on every side of the car, helping a lot when taking steep turns.

As for the installation process, NVIDIA has made a great work at simplifying it as the configuration wizard guides the user through all steps. The only hiccup is that once the bezel compensation adjustment is finished, the new resolution is not applied automatically and the user has to go in the resolution section to apply it.

ASUS, with its VG236H, has done a great job at making the technology affordable; $500 for everything that is needed to get into the 3D world is pretty reasonable in my opinion, especially considering the nice build quality and display performance of the monitor. To keep the price low, many great design choices were made; the most notable being the lack of any analog circuitry and built-in speakers. Considering that desktop computers feature digital video outputs for quite a few years now, and the vast majority of PC users run audio either through dedicated speakers or a headset, these were the right choices.

Overall, one might ask: "Is such a setup worth the cost?" Three ASUS VG236H like those used in this article cost $1500. That's a lot. One does get three pairs of glasses, however, so a few people can enjoy the show at the same time. A cheaper solution would be to buy one 3D Vision kit separately and three compatible monitors. Even then, it remains quite expensive. If the wallet is feeling a little light, one might decide to adopt only one of the technologies; 3D, or Surround / Eyefinity. Depending on the games played, one over the other might be better anyways.

Comments

$500 is the regular price ive seen it for $450 for an asus monitor with nvidia's 3d kit. @ mwave.com, the experience is still cheaper on the pc vs console! $450-500 for 1 monitor, around $1200 for 3 screens and 1 kit. $1500 for 3 screens and 3 kits. For 1 kit/screen you need at leats one Nvidia gpu, you can buy a gtx 460 today less the $200 added to your current computer. For 3 screens and one kit you need at least 2 gpus that's around $350 for 2 gtx 460 1gig version. So for under $1500 ( with bargain shopping ) you can experience 3d vision surround @ 1080p x3 screens and 1 kit with 2 gpus added to your current pc! Consoles cheapest 3d lcd without 3d kits is $1500 add $400 for 2 pairs of glasses.